First snow of the season

This is what we woke up to this morning. Our house was beaming with excitement. We were even ready for school early. I love how magical snow is for kids.

HALLOWEEN!!

So we pretty much celebrated Halloween for 3 days straight. It started with Conor and Kya's school parties on Friday which I was able to go to since Tom took a half day off of work to stay with Crew. I didn't have my camera with me but it was very cute to see them with all of their classmates in their costumes. School is such a great thing! By the way, I made Kya and Conor's costumes. I had a blast doing it and I think I'll try to do it more often. The last time I made costumes was when Kya was a baby!
On Saturday it was our ward party. It was at the same place as last year. As you can see we pretty much live in the coolest ward ever. We had carnival type games and a hay ride to a field of pumpkins for the kids to get a pumpkin from. There was also an AWESOME hay tunnel maze which Conor and his little buddies spent pretty much the whole time playing in. There was marshmallow roasting and of course the trunk or treat. Sadly Crew had the stomach flu and was literally puking as we were getting ready so he and Tom stayed home. We totally look forward to our fall ward party so this was super sad for Tom and Crew.

We had planned on not going trick or treating on Sunday but Tom felt bad for Crew so he took him and Kya trick or treating. Conor said that he didn't want to go, so he and I stayed and handed out candy and Conor read his favorite version of Peter Pan to me. He told me that he didn't want to go trick or treating on Sunday because he wanted to keep the sabbath day holy. We are so proud of him for choosing the right and wanting to live righteously. I've decided that eight is one of my favorite ages. They really understand right from wrong and are deciding how they want to live. I was never really aware of that about eight year olds until I had one. Now I'm noticing it in other 8 year olds as well. It's so amazing and has strengthened my trust in a wise Father in heaven who knows that 8 is the perfect age to be accountable.

Carving pumpkins

Here's our pumpkin carving family home evening this year. The kids drew their own faces on their pumpkins and Tom helped them carve them. Kya wouldn't scoop out the guts cause she thought it was gross. This coming from my little girl who catches frogs to play with and collects slugs to smash on the sidewalk.

Pumpkin Patch

We went with our friends to a local pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins this year. It was fun to see the kids determination to find what they thought was the perfect pumpkin.

Caramel Apples & Hockey

The kids had a day off of school a few Fridays ago so we headed to Auntie Kindy's. We made caramel apples and played at her park. It was super fun. We loved it! Thanks Auntie Kindy.

The CHL team here played our Arizona Sundogs so we of course had to cheer for them and Tom of course had to wear his jersey. The people sitting in front of us teased the kids for cheering for the Sundogs. We were huge fans of the Sundogs during their inaugural season and went to several games. They'll always be our favorite.

Gramps & Grandma's visit

Gramps and Grandma came to visit in September. Sadly Grandma was sick and didn't get to come with us to see the Elk or to Kya's soccer game. Luckily we took a million pictures and then presented a slide show for her with our projector so she got to experience it from the comfort of the couch. Get ready for a ton of picture's.

Conor is obsessed with Chess right now. He wanted to learn how to play a while ago and so Tom taught him. He is constantly looking for someone to play with him. We're all a little tired of chess so sometimes he'll play against himself. Lucky for him Gramps was up to playing a few games.
Grandma and Kya playing a game in their jammies.

Tom wanted to drive up to Estes to try and see some of the Elk that come down out of the hills into town every year. I think it's kind of sad that the Elk are so overpopulated up there since there's no hunting in National Parks. They run out of space. It does make for some awesome picture ops though.
We were told by a passerby that we should go look at the one's on the golf course in town.

We tried from this side of the course first.

There was a bull with about 12-15 cows and even a few calves just hangin out on the course, sometimes right next to the golfers. The golfers just played through and the Elk didn't seem to mind at all.

We got to hear the bull bugle a few times.

Then we found this path along the other side of the course and walked along it to get up a bit closer.

We were sitting just on the other side of the stream from the Elk.

Super Crew to the rescue!

Crew of course found a stick and was making shooting sounds and saying, "got 'em!"

This is our favorite picture. How often do you see this?

Notice his tongue!!

Impressive huh?!

Kya had a game on Saturday that Gramps got to come to with us. She is the one in yellow with black and white pants on.

Kya's fan club.

We love watching this girl play.

Goalie!

Her favorite part is the snacks at the end of the game. She knows what's important!